Carbid-feeding device for acetylene-gas generators.



No. 697,024. Patented Apr. 8, I902.

W. E. SCOFIELD. CABBID FEEDING DEVICE FOR ACETYLENE GAS GENERATORS.

(Application filed. Jan. 21, 1902.)

(No Model.)

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UNTTEn STATES PATENT CEEICE.

\VILLIAM E. SCOFIELD, OF LONG ISLAND CITY, NEW YORK, ASSIGNOR TO THE SUNLIGHT GAS MACHINE COMPANY,

PORATION OF NEIV JERSEY.

OF NEXV YORK, N. Y., A COR- CARBlD-FEEDING DEVICE FOR ACETYLENE-GAS GENERATORS.

SPECIFIGATIGN forming part of Letters Patent NO. 697,024, dated April 8, 1902.

Application filed January 21, 1902. Serial No. 90,672. (No model- 1"!) (all who/1t it 7111!!1/ coll/corn:

Beitknown that I,W1LL1AM E. SCOFIELD, a citizen of the United States, residing at Long Island City, borough of Queens, county of 5 Queens, and State of New York, have made a new and useful Invention in Carbid-Feeding Devices for Acetylene-Gas Generators, of which the following is a specification.

.My invention has for its objects, first, to

provide a feeding device which shall periodically feed definite quantities of carbid into the gas-generating chamber and with as little friction as possible to the operating parts;

second, to provide a duplex or double cup- I5 feeding device, one of which shall act to hold the carbid in check while the other is discharging the charge already released from the former into the gasgenerating chamber.

For a full and clear understanding of the invention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to construct and use the same, reference is had to the accompanying drawings and following spcciiication,the especial points of novelty being particularly pointed out in the claims at the end of the specification.

Figure l is a sectional view taken through the top of a gas-generating chamber of an acetylene-gas generator, showing the carbidcontaining chamber and my improved feed- 0 ing device in side elevational View, one part of the feeding device being broken away to better illustrate the interior structure. Fig. 2 is an additional vertical sectional view taken through Fig.1, myimprovements being shown in elevational view therein and as seen looking at Fig. 1 from left to right in the direction of the arrows, the upper portion of the apparatus being broken away.

Referring now to the drawings'in detail, in

0 both of the figures of which like letters of reference represent like parts wherever used, Gr represents an acetylene-gas-generating chamber of the usual type, and H the carbid-chamber, secured in the top thereof for maintaining or holding a definite supply of carbon,

B being the cover therefor, and H a downwardly-extending compartment beneath the same,,to the lower end of which my novel form of carbid-fecdin g device is attached, the

same consisting of two quadrantshaped cups n A and A, pivoted at their upper ends upon truunions T T, secured to the outer faces of the downwardly-extending compartment 11. Each of these cups has a curvilinear bottom,

as shown, the cup A being provided with a weight W and the cup A with a weight W, said weights being located at the extreme lower left-hand edges of the cups,and the arrangement being such that normally they both maintain the positions shown in full lines, the bottom of the cup A acting to hold the carbid C from escaping from the compartment 11, while the cup A rests with its lateral edges bearing against two pins P P in the opposite ends of the cup A, as clearly indicated in Fig. 2. I

S is an operating-shaft journaled at its opposite ends in the gas-generating chamber and supporting at its center a spider-wheel having four arms a, located ninety degrees apart, said arms being adapted to bear successively in a groove upon the upper surface of the cup A as the spider-wheel is rotated in the direction of the arrow.

B is an operatingwheel located on the outer end of the shaft S and adapted to be operated either by hand or by any of the wellknown automatic devices, depending upon the rise and fall of the bell of the gasometer as the gas is consumed.

The operation is as follows: The compartment H and chamber H are filled with carbid and the cover B secured in place, under which condition the carbid C assumes the position shown in the drawings, being held in check by the bottom of the cup A. The operating-Wheel R is then rotated in the direction of the arrow, Fig. 1, until the arm a, now bearing upon it, passes off the extreme righthand edge of the cup A. In doing this the two cups A and A are rotated together from right to left under the action of the arm a, the lateral edges of the cup A bearing against the two pins P in the lateral outer faces of the cup A. Consequently the charge of carbid is released from the upper cup and falls freely into the lower cup, but not with sufficient flow to fill the latter completely during the time that the arm a is rotating from the position shown in dotted lines until it passes off the extreme right hand, a sufflcient charge being received in this time for the purpose required. When the arm a passes off the righthand edge of the cup A, it is instantly released, and the weight W then causes the cup A to quickly assume a position such that all of the carbid therein is emptied into the gasgenerating chamber. At the same time the cup A is released and starts back to its normal position under the influence of the weight W, the bottom thereof acting in the nature of a cut-off or valve to check the outflow of carbid from the compartment H. This operation is repeated successively as the shaft S is rotated, and equal charges of carbid are thus periodically emptied into the gas-generating chamber, when the shaft is rotated automatically by the action of the bell of the gasometer on its descent through the agency of driving mechanism with the operating-wheel R.

I am aware that a carbid-feeding device in the nature of a single cup having two compartments has heretofore been devised, said carbid-cup being pivotally supported below the lower-end of the carbid-containing chamber and operated by mechanism which first released the carbid at a point beneath the chamber and allowed it to descend into the second compartment, after which it was released from the lower compartment of the cup and emptied into the gas-generating chamber by the swinging action of the cup, and I make no claim hereinafter broad enough to include such a structure, my invention being limited distinctly to two pivoted carbid-feeding cups, the movement of the upper cup being made dependent upon the movement of the lower, and said cups being, in effect, mechanically independent of each other.

With a carbid-feeding device as thus constructed I am enabled to obtain the best results possible, owing to the fact that the lower cup is comparatively free from friction in its movements and will therefore always perform its operation in a most satisfactory manner.

Having thus described my invention, what Iclaim, and desire to secure by Letters Patent of the United. States, is

1. In an acetylene-gas generator a carbidchamber, in combination with two carbidi'eeding cups pivoted below the chamber and operatively connected with means for rotating them in such manner that the upper cup, when tilted to its extreme limit, empties a charge of carbid into the lower cup and the latter, when returned, discharges it into the gas-chamber, the first-named cup acting simultaneously to cut off the flow of carbid, substantially as described.

2. In an acetylene-gas generator a carbidchamber, in combination with two carbidfeeding cups pivoted below the chamber and each provided with means for normally holding its bottom in the path of the flow of the carbid from the chamber together with means for rotating both cups simultaneously against the influence of the holding means, the arrangement being such that the charge of carbid is emptied into the lowercup when both on ps are tilted to one extreme and dis-- charged from the latter under the influence of the first-named means, when both cups are released, substantially as described.

3. In an acetylene-gas generator a carbidchamber; a gas-generating chamber and two independent carbid-feeding cups pivotally secured below the carbid'chamber and provided with weights for holding the bottoms of the cups normally in the path of the flow of the carbid from its containing-chamber; in combination with means for tilting both cups simultaneously against the influence of the Weights until a charge of carbid is deposited into the lower cup and afterward releasing both cups so that the lower cup swings under the influence of its attached weight and discharges the carbid into the gas-chamber, the second cup following after under the influence of its attached weight and acting as a cut-off for the flow of further carbid, until the operation is repeated, substantially as described.

In testimony whereoflhave signed my name to this specification in the presence of two subscribing witnesses.

WILLIAM E. SOOFIELD.

Witnesses:

O. J. KINTNER, M. F. KEATING. 

